Telecommunications processes, equipment and devices consume large amounts of power primarily due to ever increasing customer demands for digital communications versus analog communications. With the shift from analog communications equipment to digital communications equipment in the telecommunications network, the design requirements for power distribution systems have changed.
The design of power distribution systems is heavily regulated by legacy specifications. One such legacy specification provides that secondary power distribution systems (e.g., buses, cables, and power protection devices) provide up to a 2 volt drop between components, which ensures secondary power distribution systems are not overloaded. In view of the legacy specifications, secondary power distribution systems are optimized for manufacturability and cost. Specifically, legacy specifications have driven the designing of secondary power distribution system components to meet the maximum 2 volt drop between components, while utilizing the least amount of copper in an effort to reduce material costs. For example, the sizes of cables and buses are optimized based on the investment of copper to provide the maximum 2 volt drop between a battery bus and the loads. This ensures power distribution systems operate to desired levels and that cables are not overloaded. While legacy specifications regulating safe thermal levels of power distribution systems have remained unchanged for the past few decades, the cost of copper and power have changed. Accordingly there remains a need in the art for high wattage digital telecommunication power distribution equipment that operates to the desired levels with a lower resistance and thus a reduced amount of waste heat.